


Day 1 - Japan

by Shardinian



Series: Shardinian (Mishka)'s OBEYMEmber! [1]
Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:40:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27309349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shardinian/pseuds/Shardinian
Summary: (WARNING: I am an ignorant Canadian, and know nothing about Japan.  My apologies in advance.)
Series: Shardinian (Mishka)'s OBEYMEmber! [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1993873
Comments: 8
Kudos: 24





	Day 1 - Japan

How did this ever get by the union? Slackers, every last one of them. Back when she was running the local, this never would have flown.

The gray-haired demon adjusted her glasses and squinted at the seven new troublemakers sitting together in the back of her classroom.

One was asleep. One was doodling on his desk. One was doing his nails. One was trying to sneak a snack from his lunch pail, as if she hadn't seen every trick a thousand times before. She'd been lecturing miscreant demon brats at RAD since before they'd even been born, since the very day the doors had opened, and wasn't the least bit concerned by the rumors.

Former angels, she'd been told.

Poppycock.

Troublemakers, every last of them.

“Alright, everyone.” (They collectively groaned; she professionally ignored them.) “We've finished this lesson on Human world geography: The Islands of Japan. On Monday we'll begin the Great White North: Prince Rupert's Land. But before we do, I'd like you all to take the rest of today's class and come up with a presentation about your favorite things from Japan. Take as much or as little time as you need,” (the doodler perked right up, grabbed a red marker and began furiously scribbling), “and remember that your final grade will be based on-"

“Finished!!” The white-haired brat waltzed straight up the front of the class, held up a sheet of paper with a giant red dot in the middle, and launched straight into his ‘presentation.’ “Ahemhem! What I Liked Most About Japan, or Whatever, by The Great Mammon: The flag. Later, suckers!”

And he was gone.

If she gave him an F, she'd have to deal with him again next year.

…

D-

“I trust the rest of you will come up with something a little more… personal. Spelling, punctuation, diction, style, creativity, and poise all count. I will NOT be grading on a curve.”

All six stared.

One sloooowly crunched a bat wing chip he'd already had in his mouth.

“Well? GET TO WORK.”

So they wrote and they scribbled and they sketched (most of them, anyway), and one by one, came to the front of the class.

The presentation on Sukiyaki was really just a grocery list, but even so, he was passionate about it - and had clearly absorbed every last detail of the units on traditional cuisine, so that was something.

C+

The shy one, to her surprise, lit up the room with his unabashed enthusiasm the instant he started talking about how many different shapes and varieties and editions of menko cards there are to collect, and about how are super rare and still others, nearly impossible to find…

B+

Next came a very long, very detailed, very exhausting monologue about geishas, from the precise way to apply the oshiroi itself to the crucial differences between the eriashi and sanbonashi linework, and everything in between.

She stopped him after an hour, when he pulled out the wax and suggested they all try it together.

A-

The dullard went next. She didn't know where they'd dug up that sorry excuse for a demon, but bless his idiot heart, he almost always paid attention, and really seemed like he was trying to absorb everything he could.

“Aoshima,” was his entire presentation. “I'd like… to meet… a cat.”

It was… lacklustre, at best.

But he was finally smiling, and had said some real words, and hadn't flipped over any desks or screamed obscenities until he'd passed out or set anything on fire, so…

B+

There were only two left, and one of those two was asleep.

“Belphegor! Wake up!”

“Huh?!”

Useless, every last one of them.

“Your presentation, please. What you liked most about Japan.”

“Nothing. The whole human world can burn.”

“If you don't do the assignment, you'll just have to repeat it again next century.”

“Ugh. Fine. Then I pick the mountain. Fugisan.”

“Why?”

“Because one day it'll erupt again, and set everything on fire. Now leave me alone.”

…A+

(She was a very old demon, after all, with more traditional demon values. That humans should burn, of course, being right at the top of the list.)

“Lucifer. We don’t have much time left, so you’ll have to give us your-"

“No. I don't.”

And that was it. He packed up his backpack and walked out, with the rest of his good-for-nothing siblings right on his heels.

The old demon sighed, and shook her head. How disappointing. The first F of the day.

As she began her daily ritual of tidying up after those seven ungrateful slobs, she noticed garbage on Lucifer's desk, and frowned. He was supposed to be the responsible one.

On picking up the tiny wad of trash, however, she realized that it wasn't garbage at all. It was a single piece of paper, carefully folded into the shape of a tiny envelope.

Well then. He did the assignment after all, did he? Origami should count for something, at least, even if it isn't technically personal.

D+

And she threw it away, and kept cleaning, and wrote down all their grades and went home, and never opened the tiny envelope, and never saw the elegant, cursive handwriting that decorated only the very center of the page.

_there is more than snow_

_bathing the world in whiteness_

_that misses the clouds_


End file.
